George W. Bush’s War for America: Conservatism on

Trial

Lecture Plan

1. Culture Wars Continued: the “50:50 Nation” thesis

2. George W. Bush’s Mission: the triumphs and trials of American conservatism

The 2000 Election

CONTEXT

• Era of divided government

• Culture Wars: the religious right and Clinton

• Judicial politics

Bush v Gore December 2000

Implications:• Impossibility of reforming the system• The “Cult of the Constitution” against the

will of the people? • Partisan balance, but Republicans have

better access to courts and media• Public and media sanguine

The 50:50 Nation?Winning party’s percentage of the popular vote:

1996 Clinton 49.2

1996 House Republicans

48.9

1998 House Republicans

48.9

2000 Gore 48.4

2000 House Republicans

48.3

2002 House Republicans

50.9

2004 Bush 50.7

2004 House Republicans

50.1

2006 House Democrats

52.3

The 50:50 Nation?

The 50:50 Nation?

The 50:50 Nation?

The 50:50 Nation?

The 50:50 Nation?

• Political realignment since 1970s means that parties now reflect liberal-conservative divide

• Does the two-party system exaggerate differences over “values” as a means of buttressing their support? (c.f. pre-1932 political system?)

Bush and the Christian Right• Personal story:

redemption• “Faith politics”• “God gave us

this man” (Falwell)

Bush Before 9/11

• “Compassionate conservatism”?• Bipartisanship?: Education Act, 2001• Christian evangelicals: John Ashcroft

as Attorney General• Economic conservatives: huge upper-

income tax cuts• Nationalist: pulled out of Kyoto

protocol, refused to sign up to International Criminal Court

September 11, 2001

This crusade will rid the world of evil-doers. We’ve never seen this kind of evil

before, but the evil-doers have never seen the American people in action before

either… This will be monumental struggle of good versus evil, but good will prevail.

President Bush, September 16, 2001

9/11 as God’s Judgement

“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians, the ACLU,

all of them who tried to secularise America I point the finger and say you

made this happen. God will not be mocked.”

Jerry Falwell, September 15, 2001

Implications of 9/11 attacks

• Challenge to states’ monopoly of power• Exposed Americans to issues of nature of

US power in the world• Re-orientated American political agenda• Radically altered cost-benefit analysis in

West’s struggle against Islamist terrorism

• Creation of international consensus

Bush’s Worldview

Bush’s Worldview

(a) The world is a dangerous place(b) Self-interested nation-states are the key

actors in world politics(c) Power, especially military power, and the

will to use it, is all that matters(d) Multilateral agreements and institutions

are neither essential nor necessarily conducive to American interests

(e) American exceptionalism: purity of motives; what America wants is good for everyone

(f) ACTION is all that is respected

End to Consensus: invasion of Iraq

• Christian fundamentalism & Israel Lobby

• Neo-cons: the “Bush doctrine” (pre-emptive war)

• Oil interests: Cheney, Halliburton, corporate profits from Iraq

• “Democratisation” and “modernisation” of Middle East

Project for a New American Century, Letter to President Clinton, January 26, 1998

We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power… Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater…

The road to the Iraq invasion

• Link Saddam Hussain to Al Qaeda: Jan 2003: 44% of Americans thought Iraq was behind 9/11 attacks (Knight Ridder poll)

• Creation of threat: “WMD”, exaggeration of intelligence

• Stress need for immediate action: Discredit Hans Blix, UN process

• Invention of Niger connection, smearing of Joe Wilson, revealed his wife as a CIA agent

The Role of Oil

• US support for Iraq in war against Iran

• Decades of ties between Bushes, Saudis, Bin Ladens

The “Home Front”

• New language: “homeland”• Debate over civil liberties: the

PATRIOT Act, Guantanamo Bay• Implications of American casualties,

American “barbarism”: lost moral high ground?

• Limit sacrifice: more tax cuts, no draft

2004 Electionhttp://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/election/index.php?nav_action=election&nav_subaction=overview&campaign_id=178

2004 Election

Bush’s Legacy

• Limits of conservatism?• Limits of revolution?• Dangers of “America Alone” foreign

policy and exceptionalist ideology on which it is based?